


Trampling Traces of Dreams

by sapphireswimming



Series: Aces [5]
Category: Gundam 00
Genre: Celestial Being (Gundam 00) - Freeform, Gen, Gen Work, Gundam 00 Week 2018, Humor, One Shot, Ptolemy (Gundam 00), Team Bonding, The Bridge Crew (Gundam 00), slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27315193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphireswimming/pseuds/sapphireswimming
Summary: As the Blocs' interviews of their Ace Pilots gain more and more popularity, they announce that they'll start accepting questions from their worldwide audience. This presents possibilities the likes of which Celestial Being can only dream of
Series: Aces [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957048
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Trampling Traces of Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13734316/1/
> 
> Written for Gundam 00 Week 2018 Day 5: Unlimited Sky
> 
> Title from the Gundam 00 insert song _Unlimited Sky_ by Tommy Heavenly6
> 
> No warnings, spoilers for quantum brain waves

"Oh my god," Chris said as the spoon fell out of her hand and clinked onto the table. "Oh my god," she repeated, staring down at her terminal's screen.

"What?" came the chorus from around the table.

Lockon whipped out his own terminal, quickly navigating toward breaking headlines for news of some fresh horror but didn't see any new declarations or war or massacres or terrorist attacks or anything that would have warranted that reaction.

"What is it?" Lichty asked from beside her, his own dinner now forgotten.

"Is it some kind of attack?" Lasse asked, leaning forward across the table.

Chris was gaping at the screen, her mouth moving slightly as she quickly scanned the rest of the story. "No," she says, pulling herself out of it. "No, it's not anything like that."

Setsuna leaned back in his chair again. Lockon looked up sharply as Lichty stood to look at the screen over her shoulder.

"Well, don't keep us in the dark," Lasse urged.

"It's the TV program," she explained, "about the Aces… they're going to start accepting questions from the audience."

"What do you mean?" Ian asked, he brow furrowing as he reached for his coffee.

"There's going to be a special section on the website where you can submit questions," she read. "And then they'll take some of those questions to ask the different pilots during their interviews." She scrolled down a little further. "Looks like you can specify who you'd like to ask or just send in general questions and let the interviewers decide who to ask. And it doesn't say there's a limit on how many you can send in…?" she said, clicking around the page to see if she was missing anything.

This news seemed to sink in for some people more quickly than others.

"Ohoho," Lichty laughed, his breath puffing Chris' bangs, "we could epically troll them," he said.

"Well, now's the time to ask them about all of their secret weaknesses," Lasse said with a grin.

"For real," Lockon snorted.

"Imagine everything we could ask them, though," Ian said. "All the stuff we haven't been able to find out about them so far."

"'What are your operational limits?'" Lasse offered, kicking back from the table to balance his chair against the wall behind him.

"Eh," Ian shrugged. "Between our battlefield analysis and some data Wang Liu May managed to get her hands on, we actually have a pretty good idea about the Flag's standard capabilities. And since the Enact is pretty much just the AEU's rebranding of the Flag with a shiny new wrapping, there's really not much difference between the two of them to speak of."

"But 'What kind of upgrades did you give Aker's Flag for it to be able to keep up with our Gundams?'" Lockon said.

Ian pointed at him. "Exactly. Now that's something I'd pay good money to find out"

"He's the one that got up close and personal with you, isn't he?" Lasse asked, turning to Lockon.

"Yeah, he made me pull out my knife" Lockon grumbled. "He still likes Setsuna more, though," he said with a wave of his hand toward the meister, who nodded once, solemnly, from across the table. "But yeah. Whatever he's got going on for himself is above and beyond anything else the Union's got."

"Something else I want to know," Ian said as he carefully set his mug back down, "is why Pieres went crazy around Allelujah in her training run but hasn't since. And why Allelujah gets such awful pains in his head when she's around in the first place." He bunched his hair in his hand for a few moments before scratching the back of his head. "And how can you _stop it_?"

"So…" Lichty drew out in the following heavy silence. "That's a question for the Union and the HRL Aces. But what about Mr. AEU himself? What would we ask him?"

Lockon barked out a laugh. "'If you're an ace pilot, how are you so _goddamn useless in a fight_?'"

"Yes," Lasse clapped his hands loudly as he touched his chair back down to the floor again. "Yes, _please_. Please, can we ask him that. Chris," he turned toward her with a grin, "is their website up and running yet?"

"Although… would there be a security problem? Submitting something from the Ptolemy?" Lichty asked, worried.

"Not after I'm through with it," Chris proclaimed as her fingers flew across the keys. After a moment, she paused, and mused, "I wonder if I could ask him if he's single…"

Lichty pulled a face. "Not Patrick Colasaur…" he asked, now even more worried. "You don't mean him, right?"

Chris blinked up in surprise and said, "Oh no, definitely not Patrick," as Lasse began laughing, only sobering long enough to delicately begin an imaginary letter with, "Dear Graham Aker…"

"Are you taken?" Lockon jumped into continue.

"By Gundam?" Setsuna added from his seat with such a straight face that no one could tell if he knew he was adding onto a joke or not.

Lockon started laughing and Lasse pounded the table with his fist, crying, "Yes! Yes!"

Wiping a tear away from the corner of his eye with a gloved hand, Lockon managed to ask, "Are you… are you in love with the Exia?"

"When's the wedding going to be?" Lasse wheezed, nearly doubled over from laughing so hard and Lockon joined him, hitting his shoulder with a fist for support.

"And will the bride's side be invited?" he asked, his voice trailing away into peals of laughter.

"But most importantly," Ian chimed in, chucking at the sight of the two of them laughing uncontrollably, "Have you asked Setsuna for permission?"

The two of them lost it, laughing so hard they couldn't even respond.

Across the table, Setsuna's forehead wrinkled as he frowned.

The door hissed open and Sumeragi froze in the doorway as she heard the laughter inside. Her eyes grew wide as she saw Lasse and Lockon huddled together. "What's… going on here?" she asked, smiling despite herself as she took a careful step inside.

"They're accepting questions from the public!" Lichty said, straightening as she came in. "For the Ace program," he clarified. "We were thinking about how we could get them to spill all of their secret weaknesses!"

An eyebrow arched. "Is that what you were thinking?" she asked, looking over to Lasse, still hunched over the table, Lockon thumping him across the back. She finally turned toward the counter, but said, "I don't think I'd do that if I were you."

Lichty looked up at her. "But Chris said there wouldn't be a security problem!" he said.

Chris nodded as he looked to her for confirmation.

Sumeragi sighed before opening the cabinet and fetching out a tray of rations. "I'm sure that's true, but even with the best security, it's probably better not to directly ask the Blocs anything that will make them want to look twice at who asked it and why they can't be tracked down."

Chris pouted a bit.

"I'm not saying that you _can't_ send in questions," Sumeragi asked, turning around as she tore the top off of her tray. "But do you really want to try to justify the security breach to Tieria once he finds out you've been submitting obviously pointed questions directly onto a government platform?"

Everyone instantly sobered and grimaced at each other.

"Oh," Lichty said faintly.

"Yeah, never mind," Lasse said, wiping his hands down his face.

"Hmm," Sumeragi hummed as she drew up an empty spot at the table. "That's what I thought you'd say."


End file.
